If You Go: Seville + Cordoba

We loved our long weekend in sunny Southern Spain.  We stayed in Seville and took an awesome day trip to Cordoba.  We had perfect weather to stroll the streets, grab delicious tacos, and check out the amazing sites.  Put this area on your list because it's perfect:

Hotels
El Rey Moro: This is in the part of the city just outside of the Alcazar where the narrow streets feel more like Morrocco than Spain.  It's a 5 minute walk to the Cathedral or the Alcazar.  We absolutely loved the location as well as the set up of the hotel, again, more Morroccan than Spanish!  All of the rooms are set around a lovely central courtyard.  The room we had was just lovely with a view of a Spanish balcony and a crazy comfortable bed ($100/night)

Things to Do 
Alcazar de Seville: This is the crown jewel of Seville. This beautiful palace rivals the Alhambra in Granada.  Full of beautiful gardens, incredible Moorish architecture, and rich tile work.  A few recommendations: (1) pre-book, the line is crazy long; (2) when you pre-book pick the Cuarto Real option.  This allows you a semi-private tour of the upstairs rooms where the King still works and the views are incredible.  Make sure to earmark a full half day to look around completely - it's huge

Plaza de Espana: Built for the 1929 Iberian-American Festival, this beautiful Plaza has tile murals of all of the major Spanish towns and cities.  It also has a lovely space to rent a row boat and paddle around.  Just beautiful!

Palace of the Countess: We took a tour of the Palace of the Countess which is richly decorated with curiousities of the 19th century and earlier.  On the bottom of the palace, there are beautiful mosaics as well as Moor-ish style decorations.  If you have time this is a well worthwhile stop

Devour Food Tour: This is our second Devour Food Tour (our first was in Madrid) and it was really well organized!  Our guide, Hailey, took us to local tapas bars in the Triana neighborhood.  It was great to learn the history and see how locals eat.  Honestly, the food wasn't my absolute favorite, but the tour was still worthwhile

Day Trip to Cordoba: From Seville, Cordoba is an easy 40 minute train ride on their crazy fast rail lines.  We had a full day where we fit in their beautiful Alcazar (stunning gardens), Palaccio Viana (amazing floral patios) and their incredible cathedral.  Also not to be missed...their food market is fantastic

Restaurants
Note: Between markets and the food tour, we did not go to a lot of individual restaurants, so the list is short, but there is no shortage of amazing food in Seville

La Bartola: We stumbled in here after arriving late, but it was probably the best meal we had for the entire trip!  A local bar with tons of locals, we grabbed two seats at the bar and had a plethora of beautiful food come our way...croquettes, grilled calamari, manchego....and of course, wonderful wine and sangria.  Stop in in you're in the area.

Bar El Commercio: Looking for amazing, authentic churros?  Bar El Commercio is the perfect spot.  On a late Saturday morning it was loud, full of tourists + locals, and crowded...but don't let this deter you.  Snag a table at the back and place your order at the bar for the most amazing set of churros, chocolate, and fresh OJ. This can look intimidating from the outside, but the rowdiness is well worth the reward!